World Adventure

Dear All,

Up early and to the airport for our flight. We were sweating on the weight of our packs as we suspected that easy jet would charge us for every microgram over 20kg  of weight. It turned out that we were 40.3 kg and the staff didn’t really care anyway so I didn’t need to wear everything that I owned and fill my pockets up with books. EasyJet seem to be the virgin airline of Europe and were quite comfortable and definitely no frills which is what we wanted. Our fight was 3.5 hrs and it was fun trying to figure out where we were along the Croatian coast. We were in Paris in what seemed like no time at all…

Ahhh. Paris! We arrived at the airport and after a bit of confusion were on a bus to the metro station with the aim of getting onto a bus to the camping ground about 5km away from the city centre. It didn’t take too long to figure out that the signs in the Paris metro were amongst the most confusing  signs  in the world that we had  seen. Things didn’t get any better when the staff at the metro station help desk were ignorantly rude when I asked a question about changing lines. A few words later and we were on the street looking for the bus. We eventually got onto our bus and out to the camping ground stop and followed the campervan signs for the camping ground which took us around a block in the opposite direction which didn’t make me happy at all.   

We were Camping at camping du bois de Boulogne which is the only campgrounds within the Paris city limits. The grounds are ideally positioned as they lie along the seine river  and have views of the Eiffel tower from the front entrance and are surrounded by lush park lands. Only one problem they have a monopoly and no competition so don’t really have to try and haven’t remodelled since the 1970s

The tent section was next to the river and  the grounds are full of  trees ,which is  both good  and bad from a bird point of view. The tent needed relocation after a day as the birds were using it for target practice.

What strange toilet blocks we have in the camping ground. There are toilet cubicles, shower cubicles and hand basin cubicles all with lockable doors. The showers have preset temperature and pushbutton timeout which in some lasts for only 10 seconds so you could imagine there is a lot of button pushing in French caravan shower blocks. My solution is just to put a hand behind my back and lean back on the button. Well at least the paris caravan park has heaters keeping the shower block warm as it was about 13 deg C when we arrived.

We have been having problems sourcing power. There usually are power outlets in the laundry for ironing but in this camping ground the laundry was contained in the camp shop which closed early so I have had to resort to sitting in the toilet block using the power outlets for the electric shavers. Not really very good as the AA battery charger is too slow. What would help would be a camping power outlet adaptor that connects to a normal plug. Will have to look into that one.

Next day we went into Paris and found that it took two tickets each to get there from the camp site. The transport system has passes that are common to the bus, metro and train but each is exclusive usage and has different valid times. So transport cost became a problem. Our original plan was to buy the cheaper weekly passes but ‘get this’ they start on Monday and finish on Sunday so if you buy on Wednesday they are only valid until Sunday. Hmm….

Well at least we got the tent up before the rain started. It only rained enough to get us wet and no more and persisted for days which did not please me at all. I don’t mind the rain when indoors but when in a tent or have no way of getting dry it isn’t fun. Vanessa on the other hand likes to walk  in the rain so didn’t mind it.

For me it was surprising to find that there was so much forest so close to Paris . It is not surprising that it is green. However the forest reminds me of tropical jungle that one might find in the tropics yet the area is certainly not warm for much of the year. We even spotted rabbits on the edges of the road.

Maybe we have been travelling too long as we didn’t initially get any wow factor in Paris. We read that Paris is probably overrated and one problem is that it is full of tourists. That is probably a little unfair as it is a beautiful place and it’s parks are magnificent and give the city good balance along with the focus on the river but there are too many tourists particularly Americans. So it is difficult to find the real French people who no doubt are there so we found that was a big negative.

We did the usual  iconic French  monuments and sites and they really are quite special and we found that the place really grew on us. We started with the  Arc de triomphe then Eiffel tower with it’s annoying touts rattling various size replicas in your face and champs-elysees and ended up at Notre dame checking out the cathedral and gargoyles. Along the way and back we crossed many bridges and each was so different and interesting. Along the river banks were sellers with lovely retro memorabilia. Some possibly authentic.

We wander a lot without a map. It allows us to discover areas for ourselves and we found a cinema with a week of 3euro movies with one starting almost straight away. We thought ’great’ cultural experience. French movie. Will be able to understand some words and piece the rest together. The movie started and it was ’Good morning Britain’, a movie in English with French subtitles. Not quite what we expected but great fun anyway.

Next day  after our day of  seeing  the sights we went to another movie and watched ’Angels and Demons‘ also in English with French subtitles. The cinema was quite full and we held a couple of seats for a French man who was waiting for his wife. We watched the movie which was good and even more relevant to us having recently been to Rome, then I needed to help the French mans wife who was having difficulty rising out of the seat. This presented the problem of where exactly to push. I though the back was the best place as we weren’t acquainted although  a lower region would have been more effective…

Finally on our third attempt we got our  French movie . It was a life story of  Coco Chanel in French. It proved to be a little boring .

Happy birthday to me! We were up early and  at the Louvre museum being first in line at the entrance an hour ahead of scheduled opening. We thought that it wasn’t going to be necessary until about 15 minutes before opening when the queue magically got very long. Once inside it was a mad dash through the halls of the museum to find Mona Lisa so that we could have a few moments alone with her before the masses arrived. It probably is over rated and not one of Leonardo Da Vinci’s best paintings but  it was nice to fsee some of his other works which were much better. We also found the Venus de Milo statue before going back to the start and looking around properly. I didn’t know that the Louvre was built on top of a massive old castle and it’s foundations are visible on the lower floor. The display is massive and after 5hrs and possibly only half the gallery we were finished and could not look any more. Way too much to see in a day.

We found a cake shop that we liked so we scoffed  birthday cake . Most of the  food in the shops looks  great but was overpriced so we  needed to find an area outside of the tourist area. The shops however do have mouth watering cakes and deserts.

A little research overnight and we have a clue to where to  find cheap food. We caught the metro into a suburb just outside of the tourist zone and down a back street we found real food markets, bakeries and a supermarket along with real French people. It was here that we discovered begets with chocolate chips and have not seen there anywhere else. The street was a good find as it was Sunday and France as a rule shuts down. We bought up plenty of fruit and vegetable and of course some baguette  and purchase the first of our sweets for the day. A large slice of custard and berry flan. We ate our way through the day with the most piggy thing purchased and consumed being  a large piece of meringue  that was as big as a persons head! We even found that they make choc chip baguettes in France but we couldn’t  consume another sweet item so we didn’t purchase one this time  maybe tomorrow!

We got out of the eating area and headed to Cimetiere du pere Lachaise which opened its one way doors in 1804. Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf and Gertrude stein to name just a few are a few of its famous guests. It started raining so we found a sitting area under some densely leaved trees which made a nice umbrella and ate our lunch in the middle of  the cemetery. My inner conscience tells me that this is probably inappropriate but the chicken sandwich tasted nice anyway. The cemetery is no where near as good as the famous one in Buenos Aires and it was disappointing to see that the gravesite of Oscar wilde was vandalised and the most recent  entry was the day before we visited. There also was a guard at the very basic Jim Morrison site. The cemetery is probably the most greened in the world that I have seen and there are some interesting headstone and even a pyramid but the place didn’t hold us long.

We ended back at Notre dame again as we had seen postcards with interesting gargoyles and sitting down looking we saw more and more interesting creatures in the upper sections. Also of note is the saint holding it’s head…

Do not catch the metro on Saturday night if you are timid. Party goers fill it up and train after train arrives almost completely full. Then fill beyond capacity. The doors open and people barge in like a rugby scrum so people are crushed in until the doors close then press out against the sides. I told Vanessa that we were going to have to fight to get onto the metro as manners are forgotten when the platform is busy. She understandably was not keen with her back and we had backpacks on. I barged my way onto the next metro with Vanessa following and I did my best to shield her but she still got pushed   in the crush. Eventually the train emptied of most people and we arrived at our stop.

 Bugger! We took a couple of day trips and returned so late one night that we found that the public bus service to near the camping ground had finished. We had a general idea of where to go as we had been on it a few times so decided to walk. It was a little uncomfortable with low light and forest either side of the road. Just to make it a little more uncomfortable was light rain and then we discovered that once the sun goes down the ladies of the night , prostitutes , come out and wait around the area. Nothing unusual about that I imagine you are saying to yourself but the ‘ladies’ of the night in Paris don’t walk the streets showing their goods to every Tom, Dick and Harry  they sit in their mini vans illuminated by candles mounted on the dash boards and wait for their ‘clients’ to come to their mini brothel on wheels. So whist we were expecting muggers to emerge from the forest it was actually hookers that appeared. We can see that there would be definite advantages to having a roof over your head in Paris. Along the way we saw the expensive camping ground bus go past and when we arrived at the ground we found that it worked until midnight. Bugger Again!!!!! You obviously have to ask the right questions to get the right answer because the information is not voluntarily given to you and it certainly isn’t written down in anything as obvious as a timetable.

We found Paris grows on you. Yes it has lots of old buildings which are magnificent and lovely parks and the river with barges but what is the true spirit of france? For me France has great local art and style but not on the people. It is in the shop windows and particularly in the advertising posters. There is enough in Paris to keep me amused for a long time but it is not enough to just look around. It is necessary to live in the city and immerse yourself in it. To stay such a short time is unrewarding.

Did anyone notice that I had my haircut in Paris? Maybe cut is not quite the correct terminology to use maybe shorn is a more appropriate phase. Makes me wonder why Vanessa is a little reluctant to get her haircut in Paris????

Good news on the burner. We did some tracking around Paris and finally got directed to an area with serious camping equipment so I was able to get the expedition repair kit for the MSR burner. It cost 35 euro which was a bit expensive. We also purchased the correct fuel and later in the evening I overhauled it after a few wines….and it  worked. Glad as we were getting sick of eating sandwiches.

We enjoyed watching the barges from the river near the camping ground on the way to the supermarket. There is a lock nearby and we watched a large barge pass through it. Probably sounds a little boring but we liked it.

We had a strange camper near us we named soup girl. She stayed in her tent and sometimes a pair of hands would pass out of the zip and light up a burner and cook some soup before retreating inside again. We did make a rare sighting of the soup girl outside of her tent once.

Something you might not know. The Eiffel tower lights sometimes sparkles with sequenced lights at night and others it is just illuminated. Probably has something to do with the rain getting into the power with all the rain that Paris gets. Maybe there is a more technical reason for it…

We met a very enthusiastic German lady from Malaney outside the shower block one day. We had our full backpacks on but she didn’t seem to notice. She had spotted our Australian flags sewn onto the back of our backpacks. Turns out that the family have been travelling around Europe for a few months and that they had owned and run the German restaurant in Malany for 20 years.  

Tomorrow we will be heading somewhere before all our time left in France is spent here….

Bye,
David and Vanessa